Song Of The Week: ‘Make It Up’ By The Blow

Khaela Maricich and Melissa Dyne comprise the band The Blow. (Kyle Dean Reinford)

Each week NPR Music writer and editor Stephen Thompson brings us a new song. This week, he introduces us to “Make It Up” off the new self-titled album by The Blow, an electro pop band originally founded by Khaela Maricich as a solo project.

“In this particular song, ‘Make It Up,’ you can hear subtle traces of Madonna’s ‘Express Yourself’ poking out amid little whirs and pops and sparkles that jump out of every corner,” Thompson tells Here & Now’s Robin Young. “There’s a wonderful kind of toy box effect to the song, especially when you listen to it on headphones. To me, it’s irresistible.”

But it’s not just peppy pop music. Thompson says this album is part of a larger art project for Maricich.

“The songs on this new album are actually drawn from a conceptual art piece she’d written called ‘Songs For Other People.’ It’s all about tabloid stardom and a love story that plays out in public. But when you remove them from that context, which is pretty easy to do, they still function as wonderfully fizzy pieces of pop candy. A lot of thought went into The Blow’s music, but at the same time, it’s incredibly accessible.”